I present my first ISSUE essay
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23 Oct 2009, 07:15
ESSAY QUESTION:
“The mission of a university is to educate its students. Therefore, a professor’s pay and promotions should be based primarily on students’ evaluations of his or her courses.”
Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the opinion stated above. Support your views with reasons and/or examples from your own experience, observations, or reading.
YOUR RESPONSE:
The opinion that a professor’s pay and promotions should be based primarily on students’ evaluations of his or her courses,because the mission of a university is to educate its students,is an interesting one.While this idea has not yet caught on around the world uniformly,and may have it's disadvantages,I would like to argue that it will be largely beneficial.
One reason why the professor's pay and promotion should be based primarily on students’ evaluations of his or her courses,is that each professor will strive to do better than the other and try to connect with the students in the best possible way.To become successful in his field,the teacher will need to make his students happy,and will come up with innovative teaching techniques and give greater attention to their individual needs.Though this will be beneficial to both the students and the teachers,the students will be the one who will largely gain from this.This method will be contrary to the traditional approach,where teachers have their annual increment,whether or not he is indeed a good teacher or not.
Secondly,this process will help to segregate the good teachers from the best.In every profession there are people who are above par,the best in their field,and the others in the proffesion try to follow in their footsteps.In this way the benchmark becomes excelling in one's field,and this is what will exactly happen in the education field too if the said idea is implemented.
In summary,while there are arguments to be made on both sides,it is clear that if the professor's pay is based on the students' evaluation of his or her courses,it will be better for not onlt the students and the professors individually,but also for the field of education.